Ahoy Hanoi - September

BBQ piggy!

I can't believe that it was only 1 year ago that the first pig on a spit was cooked for Amanda's birthday. The weekend's party at Nathan and Juwon's was the 5th pig for the year, not forgetting the lamb.

A surprise

10 days in Nagoya was surprisingly fun. Unfortunately my birthday was spent on a business trip however a random meeting with a colleague turned into 7,000 yakitori sticks and 1 beer. Or something like that. I ate my weight in incredible Japanese food particularly the Nagoya specialties of unagi and chicken wings.

Nagoya seemed just a little bit more open and accessible than Tokyo. I felt a lot more comfortable walking into restaurants and bars, something I find really intimidating through other parts of Japan. Very liveable in fact.

Cocotte Sausage Eating Contest

It was Cocotte's second annual sausage eating contest and this year I was part of a team entry. I was shocked by the change in sausage from last year's delicious, moist, grilled sausages to this year's insipid & boiled chipolatas.

Tim, Paul, John and I ate well and took out third place and like year, the top amateur position in the country. If the professional eaters didn't go to the bathroom for a reversal of fortune, who knows how we would have fared?

La Pourcailhade - Cocotte Sausage Eating Contest

Singapore's amateur sausage eating champion 2011 with W.A.G

Raw milk Parisian stowaways

The saucisson required special inspection after creating a security alert during the carry-on x-ray however the cheeses were so good, I would have sacrificed my beloved cured meats in a heartbeat if it came to that.

Clockwise from the top:

• An aged comte (the flat one)
• Brillat savarin (I now know that there is intelligent life out there and they're making this weak-at-the-knees cheese. ET would not have wanted to go home if he new about this)
• My smelly friend epoisses making a break for the edge of the wood block
• Crutin a la truffe noire (it's Italian - shhhhh)
• Tempura dill
• Tempura sage
• Brie de meaux

And my new piggy chopping board.

Eating Paris

What can be said about Paris that has not been said before? It is such a magnificent city especially for walking. Flat geography, human scale & medium rise construction, a mixed use urban planning strategy, depth and layering of built history, fine grain streets and direct, broad boulevards (what a great way to get to those peasants in their fertile, still, tepid air!)..... and chacuterie to be found everywhere. Not a tonne of street food, but I think that the Parisian street food just happens to be found indoors.

Essentially we just ate and walked our way around Paris. Each day we would have a few pin-points on the map to provide direction. The pin-points ranged from A L'Etoile d'Or for salted caramels (a morning rush had bought out the Henri le Roux natural salted caramels however we grabbed some Bernachon chocolate) to vintage boutiques where they were not sold out of vintage Dior bags, thank-you-very-much Santa!

Luckily we were doing between 4-6 hours on foot as each meal was from 3-8 courses with bread, petit fours, amuses, wine, treats, coffee, mignardises...... The mashed potato from Benoit was essentially mashed butter with a little potato. Incredible, but thrown in as a side dish to a three course meal where the mixed tart dessert was three normal sized tarts on one plate -we somehow didn't manage to eat dinner that night.

The above made-to-order mille-feuille masterpiece from Jacques Genin was sublime. We queued at Pierre Hermes for macarons however despite them being good, the wait time is better spent at Genin. They are supposedly known for their eclairs however it was full of chocolate custard, whereas we are cream filled people.

Big Eats

• Jules Verne - incredible view (Merry Christmas window seat - well organised me!) but the food a bit hit and miss. The sommelier suggested a wine at half the stipulated price which was very much appreciated.



• Robert et Louise - OK steak cooked well on an open fire in an atmospheric bistro however it tasted too much like the hot plate. Good escargot and chacuterie.



• Le Gaigne - environment a little sterile however the food was simple, cooked well and the service generous.



• Benoit - absolutely huge servings. Huge, juicy escargots, "don't turn your back on that with me sitting opposite you" souffle, magnifique cassoulet, incroyable boudin noir. Worthy of another visit. Perhaps too much and perhaps too rich. Perhaps not? Perhaps just man-up next time?



• Les Diables au Thym - superb tete de veau with gribiche though there was cumin in two out of three courses which was a little odd.



• Hidden Kitchen - a private kitchen run by a young American chef. The food was good though not sure why he is such an apparent darling of the American food world. Perhaps it's because he cooked an excellent 10 course meal for sixteen people in a genuine domestic kitchen? Great Paris apartment.



• Spring - though odd to hear a thick Aussie accent coming out of the open kitchen this was great, simple, clean food. My only complaint was having to listen to the guy at the next table read out the entire (I promise - ENTIRE) Louvre section of the Lonely Planet to his bored date in a monotone. He was then rude to the garcon and wondered out loud why the French hate Americans. Sorry buddy - just you.



• Paul Bert - delicious steak though very average frites (as we encountered wherever we ordered them). Sweet-as-my-wife St Jacques scallops and a Grand Marnier souffle to top Benoit.



• Le Nemrod - order the croque monsieur on Polaine bread. Amanda took the Pepsi challenge with the two versions. A second croque was not what the garcon was expecting when he asked "can I get you anything else?" If he had known Amanda he could have expected a heap of croque. Good steak tartare but that is one big plate of raw meat.

We cancelled Guy Savoy and Les Ambassadeurs as we couldn't handle any more.

I am assured that I have been to St Chappelle in the past though I don't recall going - Wow.

Two sisters - both striking, one more crinkly than the other? Only in the crazy mind of an artist!

We couldn't skip it while in Paris.

Little Eats

• Pierre Hermes - maybe queue for 5 minutes, not longer.


• Jacques Genin - superb pastries.


• Au Levain du Marais - the best croissants we had from a disappointing bunch. Very very yummy but I would probably choose Victoires.


• Paul - chain boulangerie pretty good as a fall back as opposed to a random walk-in.


• Au Petit Fer Cheval -we only had a drink here but the food looked good, the service was fantastique and the setting lovely.


• Huitrerie Regis - excellent excellent oysters with sancerre.


• A l'Etoile d'Or - charismatic shop owner (picture 50 year old French lady dressed as a Japanese school girl). Tasty tasty salted caramels.


• Jounnault - dauntingly expansive fromagerie (and now, a nicely stocked Singapore fridge). I am not knowledgeable enough to compare this to other shops.


• Le Rendez-Vous des Amis - not as good as my moules but a great chacuterie plate. Note to self - picon biere is not a French brewer but the addition of a nasty bitter orange liqueur to a glass of beer.

Hmm - queuing up for the Tower while we were over-charged ridiculous amounts of money for pretty good food. Suckers!

And we couldn't skip the Tower either.

His eyes don't follow you.

The view from our apartment.

Deepavali long weekend in HK

Amanda and I have a tough life. We flew to HK again last weekend to celebrate the Deepavali long weekend with Bin. It was an eating holiday for all and a shopping holiday for the girls. I had my plans for the days however constant rain stopped me from walking the streets.

On Friday night we were booked in to Liberty Private Works, a private kitchen we had loved on a visit earlier in the year. Upon arrival we were told that there was a private function and that they had tried to get in contact with us, our booking wasn't confirmed, a dog ate their homework, sometimes bad things happen to good people.........I suspect that they had a better offer which I can understand for a 10 seat restaurant however that lack of professionalism and behaviour will come back to haunt them. I had such a great meal there last time that I am not sure how long my black-list will host them.

Try getting a booking at 8:30pm on a Friday night in Hong Kong. Our fall back plan of some noodles and meats was always going to be great however we were focused on something else. We eventually got a 10:15pm booking at The Drawing Room, a 1 star Italian restaurant attached to our hotel (JIA). The food was fantastic and everything I love about great Italian food - simple & unfussy, great ingredients, unpretentious. And generously covered in freshly shaved white truffles.

Amanda has taken an immediate shine to the white truffle after just our first try. Heaven forbid she should take to the slightly less ridiculously priced black truffle.

So we went to Bo Innovation for dinner on Saturday night. The Chef Alvin Leung is some sort of bad-boy rock star of the HK food scene although I think that this is mainly self-styled. I was very excited to eat here as Bo is one of the few restaurants delivering modern Chinese food (not to be confused with fusion). I have been very disappointed with most of the "acclaimed" fine dining locations I have eaten at in Asia many of which have been French (should I be surprised?).

I am very glad I dined here and I generally enjoyed the meal however I won't be back.

A google search will find you far better and in-depth food reviews than I can provide however my general thoughts are that this is meal is a condescending theme-park offering. As each course is served, the waiter brought out the traditional Chinese ingredient(s) that is referenced in the course being eaten and explained the background of the dish. I am fine to have some irony served with my dinner however not if it needs to be explained (condescendingly). There were almost no Hong Kong natives eating and this restaurant will continue to be a tourist only destination if it continues down this path.

Some dishes were molecular, some not. The interpretation of Beggar's Chicken was made from frog with an almost flavourless lotus root powder. It was tender and delicious however there was no link whatsoever to Beggar's Chicken. The foie gras course didn't make any discernible reference to a Chinese dish.

As a friend aptly described, it was try hard.

Sydney's pastry chefs

Having just come home from a whirlwind visit to Sydney which included a meal at Universal and Quay, I have been thinking about how exceptional the pastry chef's of Sydney are. Unsung heroes, the recent deserts I have eaten in Sydney deserve attention and along with Claude's, the "big" meals I have recently enjoyed have finished on massive, massive highs.

Throw in my Victoire's and Sydney is sweet.